ByAUJay
Summary: Blockchain consulting is changing fast. This deep-dive compares SevenLabs, Block Labs, and 7Block Labs’ approaches, then delivers up-to-the-minute playbooks on account abstraction after EIP‑7702, rollups and shared sequencers, EigenLayer AVSs, verifiable data/attestations, and real procurement checklists decision‑makers can use this quarter.
Seven Labs, Block Labs, and the New Wave of Blockchain Consulting Innovation
Decision-makers no longer ask “Should we use blockchain?” but “Which stack, which risks, which roadmap, and what business outcome do we hit by Q4?” The consulting model is evolving toward hands‑on, product‑driven delivery and vendor‑agnostic architecture.
This piece contrasts three players often confused by name but very different in focus—and distills what actually changed in 2025–2026 that should rewrite your strategy.
- SevenLabs (Bitcoin/TDEX): DEX infrastructure specialists who productize TDEX deployments and apps. (sevenlabs.io)
- SevenLabs (Solana): A Solana-native engineering partner with deep delivery for high-throughput apps and a homegrown indexing framework. (sevenlabs.org)
- Block Labs (blocklabs.io): A Web3 accelerator mixing development, marketing, and investment support for founders. (blocklabs.io)
- 7Block Labs (us): An end‑to‑end blockchain product consultancy shipping protocol components, L2 integrations, and enterprise-grade verifiable data systems—with a security-first culture and new pre‑launch smart‑contract checklist. (7blocklabs.com)
Below: concrete changes since May 2025, with checklists, architectures, and examples you can lift into RFPs, PRDs, or board materials.
What actually changed since mid‑2025 (and why it matters)
- EIP‑7702 shipped with Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade on May 7, 2025, letting EOAs temporarily run contract code (tx type 0x04). That collapses the UX gap between EOAs and smart accounts and reshapes wallet and dapp architecture. (blog.ethereum.org)
- Researchers documented new phishing patterns unique to 7702’s delegation model; your telemetry, signing UX, and revocation flows must adapt. (arxiv.org)
- Restaking hit production milestones: EigenLayer activated slashing and expanded AVS momentum, making “trust‑as‑a‑service” workable for L2 infra and beyond. (outposts.io)
- Shared sequencer bets consolidated: Espresso expanded multi‑stack testnet integrations, while Astria fully shut down in Dec 2025—proof you need vendor‑agnostic rollup plans. (blockworks.co)
- Rollups‑as‑a‑Service matured: AltLayer’s restaked rollups (Mach/Vital/Squad AVSs), Caldera’s scaled customer base and integrations, and OP Stack’s Superchain stats changed how we spec appchains. (docs.altlayer.io)
- Verifiable data went mainstream: EAS (Ethereum Attestation Service) crossed millions of attestations across L1/L2s; banks and trade platforms launched production document‑verification rails. (attest.org)
- Data availability options diversified: Avail DA mainnet and light clients matured, offering an alternative to Celestia- or Ethereum‑centric DA roadmaps. (blog.availproject.org)
Who’s doing what (and what you can borrow)
SevenLabs (Bitcoin/TDEX): DEX deployments for Liquid/Bitcoin ecosystems
What they ship:
- TDEX protocol implementations, mobile apps, and LP tooling; timelines and tooling are public and battle‑tested. (tdex.network)
What you can borrow:
- If you’re a fintech exploring Bitcoin‑adjacent markets, treat TDEX as a baseline: evaluate peg‑in/peg‑out UX, LP dashboards, and mobile flows. Use their dev portal to estimate internal ops for liquidity and compliance. (tdex.network)
SevenLabs (Solana): Solana‑native engineering partner
What they ship:
- Production delivery on Solana plus their own indexing framework (Carbon) to address Solana’s parallelism and data quirks. (sevenlabs.org)
What you can borrow:
- For consumer‑scale throughput (gaming, social), combine account abstraction‑like UX patterns on Solana with a robust indexer and roll forward‑only migrations to minimize outages.
Block Labs: Accelerator + dev + marketing + investment
What they ship:
- A full‑stack GTM: dev squads, Web3 marketing/KOL ops, PR distribution, and seed‑to‑Series‑A investment. Builders with budget pressure can buy execution plus eyeballs in a single engagement. (blocklabs.io)
What you can borrow:
- If your constraint is distribution, insist on growth KPIs (CAC/LTV, retention, K‑factor) in contracts—not just code delivery.
7Block Labs: Security‑first product delivery across chains
What we ship:
- Protocol components, L2/L3 chains, EOA→smart account transitions post‑7702, verifiable‑data pipelines—and a public pre‑launch smart‑contract checklist. (7blocklabs.com)
What you can borrow:
- Vendor‑agnostic decision matrices (DA, sequencer, RaaS, AVS).
- Observable, testable architectures with exit hatches if a vendor sunsets.
Playbook 1: Account abstraction after EIP‑7702—what to instrument, ship, and avoid
7702 lets EOAs temporarily delegate execution to contract code, enabling batching, policy controls, and sponsored gas—without forcing a new address. That improves UX but adds a persistent‑delegation risk surface.
What to log in production:
- Authorization lineage: hash of authorization list, delegator address, expiry/nonce, chain ID. Alert on re‑use across chains. (eip.info)
- 7702 transitions: when a 7702 tx sets code vs reverts to EOA, plus contract bytecode hash deltas.
- Bundler/paymaster semantics: track EntryPoint version if you also support ERC‑4337; your dashboards must be version‑aware (0.7/0.8/0.9). (hackmd.io)
UX & safety patterns to ship:
- Explicit session scopes: display the specific policy module being delegated (spend limits, allowed targets), with one‑tap revoke.
- Post‑sign webhooks: notify users when 7702 authorization is reused or persists longer than N minutes.
- Anti‑phish flows: block blind signing of 7702 authorizations, show human‑readable consequences, and gate high‑risk scopes behind passkeys/WebAuthn. The 2025 paper demonstrates how one bad authorization takes over the account—treat this as a P1 risk. (arxiv.org)
Reference:
- Pectra activation details and tx‑type semantics for 7702. (blog.ethereum.org)
Playbook 2: Rollups in 2026—shared sequencers, RaaS, and a vendor‑agnostic blueprint
What’s real now:
- Espresso’s shared sequencer has multi‑stack testnet integrations (Optimism, Cartesi, Polygon zkEVM; Arbitrum stack via Gibraltar) and external node operators. You can test preconfirmations and cross‑rollup atomicity today. (blockworks.co)
- Astria, once a leading shared sequencer on Celestia, intentionally halted its network in Dec 2025. This is the strongest argument for “design for churn” in your L2 ops. (unchainedcrypto.com)
- OP Stack Superchain traction makes OP‑based appchains (via Conduit/Caldera) pragmatic for many: Base’s lead, Celo migration, and multi‑chain governance/tooling maturity. (messari.io)
RaaS options, quickly:
- AltLayer “restaked rollups”: three AVSs—Squad (decentralized sequencing), Vital (state verification), Mach (fast finality)—to harden any stack via EigenLayer. (docs.altlayer.io)
- Caldera: scaled customer base, Orbit support, EigenDA integrations, and programmatic chain ops; Messari tracks >100 deployed chains and meaningful fee volume by Oct 2025. (messari.io)
- Conduit: OP Stack chains for brands and protocols (e.g., Synthetix SNAXchain) and broader Superchain collaborations. (theblock.co)
A vendor‑agnostic L2 architecture you can ship:
- Execution: OP Stack L3 on Base or OP Mainnet for ecosystem gravity.
- DA: abstract via interface; support EigenDA first, with Avail or Celestia compatible fallbacks. Avail’s mainnet and light clients are production‑ready. (blog.availproject.org)
- Sequencing: start centralized or with Rollup‑Boost‑style preconfirmations; plan a path to Espresso shared sequencing. Bake in a “sequencer adapter” so you can swap if a vendor sunsets. (blockworks.co)
- Interop: add AggLayer‑compatible proofs or cross‑rollup intents in the backlog; Polygon’s Plonky3 proving system is production‑ready and aligns with AggLayer. (coindesk.com)
Procurement checklist (drop into your RFP):
- DA SLA and exit: DA switch procedure, replay/rehydration time, and cost curves at 2×/5× traffic.
- Sequencer neutrality: MEV policy, preconf guarantees, external operator set, and slashing rules (or lack thereof).
- RaaS transparency: upgrade cadence, supported stacks, on‑call SLOs, operator metrics, and offboarding playbook.
Playbook 3: Restaking and AVSs—what to adopt in 2026
Why it matters:
- Slashing is live on EigenLayer mainnet, completing core protocol mechanics. AVSs can enforce operator behavior, not just signal intent. (outposts.io)
Where to start:
- Identify one AVS that materially reduces your chain’s trust assumptions (e.g., decentralized sequencing or fast finality). AltLayer’s AVS trio is a pragmatic path with existing ops and dashboards. (docs.altlayer.io)
- Measure “trust per dollar”: compare the cost of replicating AVS assurances in‑house vs. paying AVS fees + monitoring.
Guardrails:
- Staking composition risk: watch LST concentration and correlated slashing scenarios; many AVS ecosystems still skew toward a few LSTs. (Industry trackers have noted concentration patterns; require operator set diversity in contracts.) (outposts.io)
Playbook 4: Verifiable data and attestations—production patterns that work
Why now:
- EAS crossed multi‑million attestations across Base, Arbitrum, and more—production‑grade for identity, reputation, and RWA metadata. (base.easscan.org)
- Banks are deploying real‑time document checks in trade finance; the direction of travel is clear: verifiable, machine‑checkable proofs at scale. (businesstimes.com.sg)
An enterprise‑ready blueprint:
- Schema strategy: Define EAS schemas for asset identity, ownership updates, and compliance flags; version them and publish to your internal registry. (github.com)
- Privacy tiers: Use off‑chain attestations with on‑chain anchors for sensitive fields; only hash commitments onchain.
- Rollup economics: Store attestations on a low‑fee L2 with periodic settlement; use DA for bulk evidence and EAS as the control plane.
KPIs to track:
- Attestation issuance latency P95 and verifier throughput.
- Dispute rate and median resolution time.
- Off‑chain evidence retrieval SLOs.
Two concrete examples you can start this quarter
- Wallet/dapp team migrating to 7702
- Ship a “dual‑mode” account: EOA by default; 7702 delegation for batched swaps and gas sponsorship.
- Integrate passkeys for high‑risk scopes; record authorization list hashes and support 1‑click revoke.
- Threat‑model phishing per the 2025 paper; add anomaly alerts on cross‑chain reuse of a 7702 authorization. (arxiv.org)
- Gaming chain on OP Stack with a future‑proof sequencer
- Launch an L3 via Caldera/Conduit; set gas in your game token; target Base for distribution.
- Start with centralized sequencing; implement preconfirm webhooks; build a sequencer‑adapter interface.
- Pilot Espresso preconfirmations on testnet; define a migration playbook to shared sequencing in Q3. (messari.io)
How to evaluate similarly named partners (and avoid brand confusion)
- “SevenLabs” ≠ one company. Validate domain and specialty:
- sevenlabs.io is Bitcoin/TDEX-focused deployments. (sevenlabs.io)
- sevenlabs.org is Solana engineering and tooling. (sevenlabs.org)
- “Block Labs” at blocklabs.io is an accelerator (dev + marketing + investment), not a pure protocol shop. Ensure scope clarity in SOWs. (blocklabs.io)
Use this quick vetting grid:
- Chain specialization (Bitcoin/Solana/EVM)
- Evidence of recent mainnet work (post‑2025 posts, repos, or customer launches)
- Security posture (checklists, pre‑audit hardening, telemetry)
- Exit strategy (what if their sequencer or RaaS vendor sunsets?)
12‑month roadmap template for enterprises and scale‑ups
Quarter 1: Prove and harden
- Discovery/architecture: choose chain stack and DA with a written exit plan.
- POCs: 7702‑enabled wallet flows; EAS‑based attestations for one high‑value asset class.
- Security: run our pre‑launch checklist and instrument AA telemetry. (7blocklabs.com)
Quarter 2: Ship the minimum lovable product
- L2/L3 pilot: OP‑based appchain with centralized sequencing + preconf webhooks.
- EAS in production: off‑chain attestations + on‑chain anchors for audit fields.
- KPIs: time‑to‑finality, attestation costs, retention.
Quarter 3: Decentralize and integrate
- Shared sequencer testnet piloting (Espresso Gibraltar); production gate criteria defined.
- AVS adoption: pick 1–2 AVSs (fast finality, decentralized sequencing) with measurable trust deltas. (blockworks.co)
Quarter 4: Scale and govern
- Sequencer decentralization phase‑in or adapter‑based vendor swap.
- Cross‑rollup UX: AggLayer‑aligned proofs or bridging improvements.
- Compliance: expand verifiable docs to new assets/regions; SOC‑2 on attestation ops. (coindesk.com)
Final takeaways for decision‑makers
- Plan for vendor churn. Astria’s sunset was a gift: build sequencer/DA adapters and keep your exits oiled. (unchainedcrypto.com)
- Treat 7702 as a UX unlock—and a brand‑new phishing surface. Instrument authorizations, add revocation UX, and train users. (blog.ethereum.org)
- Use restaking where it collapses your threat model or accelerates decentralization milestones; otherwise, it’s just cost without clarity. (outposts.io)
- Make attestations your verifiable data backbone now; EAS and banking‑grade workflows are already live. (base.easscan.org)
How 7Block Labs can help
- Architecture and RFPs: vendor‑agnostic diagrams, decision matrices, and evaluation scorecards for DA, sequencers, and RaaS.
- Delivery: OP‑/Orbit‑/CDK‑based chains, 7702‑ready wallets, and EAS pipelines—with production telemetry and incident playbooks.
- Security: pre‑launch hardening and engineering‑led reviews mapped to your SLAs and compliance posture. (7blocklabs.com)
If you’re planning an L2/L3, a 7702 migration, or verifiable data rollout, we’ll map a 90‑day plan with KPIs, risks, and budget you can take to your board.
Sources and further reading
- Ethereum Foundation: Pectra mainnet activation and schedule (May 7, 2025). (blog.ethereum.org)
- EIP‑7702 spec and developer references; post‑Pectra implementation guides. (eip.info)
- EIP‑7702 phishing analysis (Dec 2025). (arxiv.org)
- EigenLayer slashing/AVS momentum. (outposts.io)
- Espresso shared sequencing testnet with Arbitrum and external operators. (blockworks.co)
- Astria network shutdown (Dec 2025). (unchainedcrypto.com)
- AltLayer restaked rollups (Squad/Vital/Mach). (docs.altlayer.io)
- Caldera ecosystem scale (as of Oct 2025). (messari.io)
- EAS adoption and explorers. (attest.org)
- Avail DA mainnet update (2024–2025). (blog.availproject.org)
- SevenLabs (Bitcoin/TDEX) and SevenLabs (Solana) company pages. (sevenlabs.io)
- Block Labs accelerator overview. (blocklabs.io)
- 7Block Labs company overview and security checklist. (7blocklabs.com)
Interested in a vendor‑agnostic architecture review for your chain or wallet? Contact 7Block Labs—we’ll bring code, dashboards, and a clear path to production. (7blocklabs.com)
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